Chain of Command Daft Me

 I was going to skip Club night this week but got an invite from Stuart to play Chain of Command and as I am a bit fixated on the new version, I can't lose all the time, I popped along. Stuart wanted to use his newly recruited Volksgrenadiers and the back story was these guys had been instructors at an infantry school in the last days of the war as the British closed in but were determined to go down fighting.

My support roll was dreadful but I figured the Jerries would not have enough for a tank so took an infantry heavy force with a couple of PIAT's just in case, it was also good to command my British for a change. I was the attacker so wanted to make an effort rather than simply build up a firing line, fire and movement does it boys. I set up quite quickly with the idea of hitting the enemy right flank and then moving on the crossroads which were the objective, Stuart countered with his LMG squad and a MMG and squad on my right, he also put a section in a hedgeline opposite my advance, tardy though it was.

Enemy with an inventive Jump Off Point.

MMG dug in, smoke incoming!

NCO takes a hit.

British MMG.

I dropped smoke to protect my right and it worked a treat although I still had to withdraw one squad further back into a wood for protection while I rallied them. I drove off the section on my left and started to move forward only to find some old men and teenagers of the Volksturm to my front, a speed bump at best I thought. No, I had a squad almost wiped out and an NCO bit the dust, my morale fell to 6 from 10 in the blink of an eye. We had now run out of time, this always happens with CoC at the club but I wanted to play and simply learn more. Although my morale was lower than the Jerries I did manage to strike back at the Volksturm and once they were out of the way the road to the Crossroads would be clear so we agreed that the British were ahead. Of course we all know you cannot count on anything in a wargame but it did not look good for the Jerries, we would have needed another hour or so to conclude things.

Next up was the start of the "Many Rivers to Cross" campaign with Matt from the club, the Germans are attacking and pushing for bridges to get their armour into the French rear and on the way to Dunkirk, so the German infantry have to gain ground in order for the pioneers to build a bridge to enable the armour to rush forward and take another bridge defended by the enemy before they can blow it up. Matt chose the French so I was the bad guys.

It was important for me to get off to a good start so I decided to throw everything at the first game, I am not allowed any heavy weapons or vehicles until the bridge has been built so I took a couple of 5cm mortars a MMG and a Stuka bombardment along with a Shabby Nazi Trick of a Fifth Columnist. Matt countered with his own MMG, some AA and a small tank, something which I could do nothing about except possibly drive it off with maching gun fire if the crew got wary.

Bombs Away!

Anyway the Luftwaffe turned up and knocked down one house, they had hardly any other effect on the French forces, a poor showing for Goring's boys. Anyway I forged forward as I had to clear the centre section of the French deployment area and get some men off the table edge, the latter was not a problem but the former turned into a nightmare. My spy Jean Claude managed to interrupt the deployment of one of the French Senior Leaders but it really didn't help, Matt managed to get his MMG into the rubble of the destroyed building and a further section into a small orchard, these two units caused me all sorts of grief trying to get rid of them. I tried outflanking with one section only to have the enemy rifle grenadiers cause them to retreat before getting wiped out or into a decent firing position.

The little tank.

Forward guys.

Careful.

More Jerries.

I did at last manage to break the troops in the orchard and almost, almost get the MMG to run but Matt recovered and put more troops in the orchard and saved the MMG for a couple of more phases. I had an opportunity to shoot down a French leader as he sprinted to save the MMG but failed. I now went forward to hopefully overpower the enemy but my squads had now all taken casualties and frankly were not up to the task, not without me losing more men and casualties had been heavy. My morale had also fallen drastically having rolled dismally while Matt managed a couple of times to get 'nil points'.

Refugees, what no boats?

The bloody orchard.

My only 'heavy' weapons.

I did wonder if I should push things along but the French still had a tank so discretion being the better part of valour I withdrew, I will probably regret this. As the dust settled I had taken heavy casualties and lost 10 men, Matt lost 6, I have two more platoons while the French have one, but I do need those heavy weapons and tanks, the Luftwaffe is rearming. Matt has decided to hold the village and not attempt to interrupt my bridge building so my Second platoon are being made ready determined to do better than First.

I don't care what the fan boys say it is extremely difficult to attack a position in Chain of Command, I thought I was smart and used fire and movement, suppressing fire, smoke grenades and HE but once you step out into the open you are dead meat. 

I am changing sides next week and will be the French against Matt Crump as we fight for the Gembloux Gap. I should be at the club as well, possibly Italian Wars, we will see. 

Oh, I finished the last 'official' unit of the army of Maximinus Thrax, some skirmishers, two more extras are in the wings but I might move on the Fallschirmjager gift, still undecided.

I bought a new book, I am loathe to buy anything written by a woman, mainly fiction I must admit, sorry but there it is, I have got a new book on the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain by Victoria Taylor, I watched her talking about the subject on WW2TV and was impressed, so a giant leap forward for me although I found Barbara Tuchman a great historian.